Twinkle Towne
by heartbrokenhappiness
Summary: A sophomore in college, Chad drags a reluctant Troy to the American Idols Season Ten concert....Will Troy change his mind about the show when he sees the winner? TXG, Oneshot. NOT a songfic to Tim McGraw


**Disclaimer: I do not own American Idol or High School Musical...Do you think I could buy them both for ten bucks? 'Cause that's all I got right now.**

* * *

"Chad, please tell me why we're wasting a Saturday night going to the British Heroes Season Seventy-One concert instead of going to a party or something?" Twenty-year-old Troy Bolton asked his best friend and University of Albuquerque college roomate Chad Danforth as they got in his junkie of a car, Troy feeling pretty ticked off.

"First of all, my friend, they are the American Idols Season Ten. And second of all we are going. I already have the tickets," Chad waved two strips of paper in Troy's face, "And...I got backstage passes!!" Chad looked immensly proud of this.

"What's so good about that? What do you want me to do, hook up with one of the finalists?"

Chad paled a little at this. Troy's sarcastic assumption was too close to the truth. Sort of. "No. I just wanted to meet more celebrities to add to my list of 'Celebrities Chad Danforth Has Met.'" Chad said.

"How long is that list?"

"Well, I just started it."

"Nice try, Danforth. But these people aren't even celebrities yet. So your list is gonna stay...Not A List. Now let's just get there and back so I can study, if we're not gonna go to a party."

"Study? In the summer? Dude, those years with Freaky Math Girl really paid off, didn't they?"

Troy immediatly fell silent at the mention of Gabriella. They had split up after graduation simply because, and only because, they didn't think that a long-distance relationship could work out, with Troy staying in Albuquerque and Gabriella going to Harvard. Troy regretted doing that every single day, feeling so stupid thinking that they didn't love each other enough to make it work.

"Sorry, man," Chad apologized, knowing that Troy would be much quieter for the rest of the evening. But, hopefully, if things went according to his plan, that would all change tonight.

"Here we are," Chad announced as he pulled into the jam-packed parking lot across the street from the arena where the concert was being held.

Troy just sighed and got out of the car.

* * *

As Troy and Chad were finding their seats, which were pretty far up, Troy finally started talking again.

"Chad, if we absolutely have to see this thing, then why couldn't we get better seats?"

"Uh, I don't know. Maybe because your best friend here just dropped FIVE HUNDRED on backstage passes?" Chad answered sarcastically.

"Why did you even get those? Come on, you're so frugal with cash that I have a very hard time believing you'd spend that much just to start some little autograph book that would hold no merit at all."

"Shut up and watch the show," was all Chad replied.

It was two hours into the concert, and Troy was bored out of his mind. He had a hard time listening to any of the girls singing, because he found it hard not to compare them to Gabriella's angelic voice, and none of them could even hold their own next to her, in Troy's mind.

"And now I'd like to introduce out Season Ten WINNER--" Beverly Jackson, the fourth runner-up, announced from the stage. When she said the word 'WINNER,' the crowd burst into the largest cheer Troy had ever heard.

"Dude, look at the stage. I'm begging you," Chad said desperately, when he saw how little attention Troy was paying to the show and how much attention he was paying to a hangnail on his left thumb. Troy reluctantly looked up.

"Who is also my best friend ever," Beverly continued once the cheering had died down, "Singing her hit single 'Twinkle Towne' from her new album--she wrote this song herself! Ladies and gentlemen, GABRIELLA MONTEZ!!"

The crowd erupted into cheers all over again, and Troy turned to Chad, his mouth hanging open in shock.

"Oh my God, Chad! She won a NATIONWIDE talent show and you DIDN'T TELL ME?!"

"Hey, I offered to come over and watch the show with you, but no! You just laughed in my face and said that show is just a pile of crap. Now I would advise you to turn your head towards that lovely ex-girlfriend of yours and listen to that song titled 'Twinkle Towne,'" Chad responded nonchalantly.

Troy's head immediatly snapped to the center stage.

Gabriella walked onstage, thanking and taking the mike from Beverly. Troy was amazed at how much more confident she was then when he'd last seen her.

"Hello, Albuquerque! Oh my gosh, it's so wonderful to be back. I spent the best eighteen months of my life here," then she began singing;

"**_You said the way my dark eyes glinted,  
Put those Albuquerque stars to shame  
That night. I said, That's a lie.  
Just a boy with a pickup truck that had  
A tendancy of getting stuck  
On back roads at night...  
And I was right there beside him, all  
School year long. Then the time  
We woke up to find...That school year  
Gone._**

**_Well when you think  
Twinkle Towne, I hope you think my  
Favorite song, the one we sang to  
All Winter long, the moon like a  
Spotlight on the stage, when you think  
Happiness, I hope you think your  
Initial on my sparkly necklace,  
Think of my head on your chest,  
And my old, faded blue jeans.  
When you think Twinkle Towne,  
I hope you think of me._**

**_September saw a month of tears,  
And thanking God that you weren't  
Here. To see me like that,  
But in a box beneath my bed,  
Is a letter that you never read,  
From two years back.  
It's hard not to find it all...  
A little bittersweet, and lookin'  
Back, on all of that, it's nice to believe..._**

**_That when you think Twinkle Towne,  
I hope you think my favorite song,  
The one we sang to all Winter long,  
The moon like a spotlight on the stage,  
When you think happiness, I hope you  
Think your initial on my sparkly necklace,  
Think of my head on your chest, and my  
Old, faded blue jeans.  
When you think Twinkle Towne, I hope you  
Think of me._**

**_Now I'm back for the first time, since then,  
I'm standing on your street.  
There's a letter left on your doorstep,  
And the first thing that you'll read..._**

**_Is when you think Twinkle Towne,  
I hope you think my favorite song,  
Someday you'll turn your radio on,  
I hope it takes you back to that place,  
When you think happiness, I hope you  
Think your initial on my sparkly necklace,  
Think of my head on your chest, and my  
Old, faded blue jeans.  
When you think Twinkle Towne, I hope  
You think of me...  
Oh, think of me...  
Oh think of me..._**

**_You said the way my dark eyes glinted  
Put those Albuquerque stars to  
Shame that night...  
I said, That's a lie._**

Gabriella finished the song with tears in her eyes, overcome with emotion to be actually singing this song back in Albuquerque. Her only wish was that she hoped Troy was in the audience.

The crowd ripped into applause, Troy being one of them for the first time that night.

He just couldn't believe it. She had written a song about him. Troy didn't even feel worthy of something like that.

Chad interrupted Troy's train of thoughts, with, "You know in an interview, she said that lots of songwriters and producers told her that that song would do horrible on the charts. Actually, it skyrocketed, but that's not my point. My point is that she told them that she was putting this song on the album, no matter what, that she owed a certain someone from her past a thank-you for getting her started in singing, and she was doing it like this." Chad paused for a minute, then added, almost to himself, "Bet you feel bad about ripping on me for wanting to come here, now don't ya?"

Troy just continued staring at Gabriella on stage, mesmerized, as he had been since she'd appeared.

* * *

Before Troy wanted it to be, the concert was over. Chad started hustling them throught the crowd, wanting to get Troy to Gabriella as soon as possible--Though he also really, really wanted to meet that chick Beverly.

"Chad! Slow down!" Troy called after him, but all Chad replied was, "Troy! Speed up!"

After showing their backstage passes and ID's a bunch of times, Chad ran into the backstage area, with Troy trying to catch up behind him.

"Hey, lady, do you know where Gabriella is? Oh, and that hot girl who introduced her, too?" Chad asked the nearest security member.

Before she could reply, Troy caught up and said, "I'm sorry, Ma'am, what my friend is _trying_ to say is, do you know where Miss Montez and Miss Jackson are, please?" Troy finished this with a smug glance in Chad's direction.

"To answer your demand, Curly, no I don't know where they are," the security guard replied to Chad, then turned to Troy, with a much more pleasant look on her face, "And you, Handsome, just walk a ways down that hallway, and all finalists should be on your right."

"Thank you," Troy replied, then started down the hallway with Chad at his heels.

Troy suddenly stopped, because ten feet ahead of him, with her back to him, was a girl. Troy could tell it was Gabriella by the way she had her left leg twirling around, and her right hand was spinning ringlets in her hair.

"Man! Go, before another guy makes a move on her," Chad urged and gave Troy a little push forward.

Beverly saw and recognized Troy, from all the pictures Gabriella kept in their apartment. Beverly yanked everyone around her and Gabriella to the side, then saw Chad and headed over to flirt.

Troy took a deep breath, and walked up behind Gabriella.

"Hey. Long time no see," he whispered in her ear just like he had when they were dating.

Gabriella turned around, and the expression on her face turned from and after-show rush to and overwhelming joy.

"T-Troy?"

"Hi, Aby," Troy greeted her, using the pet name he'd had for her in high school, taking the 'G' out of Gaby.

They both stood there, grinning goofily at each other, no doubt while Chad was flirting around with Beverly and kicking himself in his thoughts for spending so much money just so Troy and Gabriella could spend the night staring at each other.

All of a sudden, Gabriella wrapped her arms around Troy, and whispered, "We can make it work."

Troy rubbed his hand up and down her back like he used to, and whispered a reply, "I'd be crazy to believe we couldn't."

* * *

**So? I'd just like to point out that "Twinkle Towne" is a spin-off from Taylor Swift's "Tim McGraw," which I obviously don't own.**

**Please, please review!**


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